Contents

Background

Rin (far right, beside Obito) at the entrance ceremony.

On the day of their entrance into the Academy, Rin was present when Obito Uchiha arrived when the ceremony had ended, which left him dismayed. Rin, however, handed Obito his entrance documents, which he was very thankful for.[3] Rin was also the first to congratulate Kakashi after he'd graduated from the academy a year ahead of the rest of his class, Kakashi having gotten his own Forehead Protector after successfully performing the Clone technique. After graduating the academy a few years later, Rin was placed under the jōnin tutelage of Minato Namikaze, alongside Obito and Kakashi Hatake. For their final test to become genin, Minato tasked his potential students with taking one of two bells from him in actual combat. While initially, the team attacked Minato independently, easily being outmanoeuvreed by the older ninja, Kakashi convinced Rin and Obito to work with him, ultimately earning Minato's approval to become his students as they passed the real test: showing team-work.[4]

During the team's training sessions, Minato's wife Kushina Uzumaki would regularly join them to help their training. Rin took an especially delight in her visits, greatly liking the food Kushina would make for them, to which Kushina grew very attached to the girl.[5] When Minato's students partook in the Chūnin Exams, Rin and Kakashi stood outside the gates of the Forest of Death waiting on Obito to arrive. While in the forest, they were confronted by Guy, Genma and Ebisu. Before they could attack as a team, though, she was shocked to see Obito move to attack, but before Obito could do anything, he was knocked down by Guy. She later dressed his wounds and spoke to Obito who professed his pride in his clan, and his dream to be Hokage. She later watched with bated anticipation and cheered as Kakashi fought Guy during the third round of the exams with Kakashi defeating Guy. After Kakashi became a jōnin, Rin would concoct a top secret celebration for him much to Obito's dismay due to the fact that Obito had hoped to use the moment to presumably tell Rin that he loved her.[3]

During the Third Shinobi World War, Team Minato was assigned to destroy the Kannabi Bridge. During the mission, Rin was kidnapped by Taiseki during the course of the mission, and Kakkō — another one of her captors — attempted to interrogate her using genjutsu to find out if she knew anything about Konoha's war efforts. Rin's will, however, proved too strong and did not break even under the genjutsu. She was later rescued by Kakashi and Obito. Although they succeeded in rescuing her, Obito was crushed in a cave-in caused by Kakkō. Before Obito "died" however, he asked Rin to implant his Sharingan into Kakashi's left eye socket to replace the latter's damaged one. Wasting no time given the very grim circumstances, Rin began the procedure immediately, after which, she and Kakashi were forced to flee when enemy reinforcements arrived and continued the cave-in. Minato would later arrive on the scene and defeat the Iwa-nin. After Kakashi had recovered, the team went on to complete their mission and destroy the bridge.[6] In the anime, it was shown that Rin was sent out on a mission with Kakashi and Guy. With their situation looking grim, Guy used himself as a decoy to lead away the Iwagakure shinobi, and Kakashi went after him. Rin later returned with backup from Konoha, which caused the enemy-nin to retreat.[7]

Rin as Isobu's jinchūriki.

Some time after the events at Kannabi Bridge, Rin was secretly kidnapped by Madara Uchiha under the guise of Kirigakure's doing,[8] and had Isobu sealed into her. She was also branded with the Forbidden Individual Curse Tag and programmed so that the tailed beast would be let loose within Konoha once she and Kakashi returned to Konoha.[9] She was soon rescued by Kakashi. To ensure the retrieval of the tailed beast, various jōnin and Anbu-level Kiri shinobi were sent to chase after them. Surmising the true reason she was made a jinchūriki, Rin, being unable to take her own life, asked Kakashi to kill her in order to protect the village, to which Kakashi refused, stating that he had vowed to Obito to protect her by any means necessary.

Rin impaling herself on Kakashi's Chidori.

Rin, however, later chose to commit suicide rather than risk Konoha's safety which she achieved by intercepting Kakashi's Chidori, which was meant to hit a Kiri-nin, impaling herself and dying before the boy she loved with the two unaware of Obito's presence. Rin also used the last of her strength to whisper Kakashi's name before she died, with her death leaving the enemy ninja stunned and both Kakashi and Obito horrified. Seconds later, as Kakashi passed out due to exhaustion, Obito who had witnessed the scene responded by viciously and mercilessly slaughtering all the enemy ninja in sight before holding Rin's body and vowing to recreate a world where he and Rin could ultimately be together again. In the afterlife, Rin would spend her time always watching Obito, just as she assured him long ago.

It is not known what became of Rin's body after she died, but it is presumed that Obito either buried her or that they were discovered, and her body was taken back to Konoha and buried in the Konoha Cemetery.

Personality

Rin treating Obito's wound.

Rin was a sweet and friendly girl who cared deeply for her comrades as well as her village. She often played the role of peacemaker during Obito and Kakashi's many spats while remaining objective. Rin was also an intellectual individual, witnessed by her ability to learn as well as use high-level medical ninjutsu at such a young age. She proved to be perceptive under stress as seen in when she thought Obito had died and after being captured by the Kiri shinobi, she concluded that she should not return to Konoha or the village would be attacked. Rin was a devoted person as seen in her unwillingness to abandon Obito even when her own life was in great peril. She had a very strong will, as even though under what seemed to be the harshest of genjutsu, she would not break. While Obito had romantic feelings for her, Rin did not share them, instead having romantic feelings for Kakashi which were revealed only shortly after Obito was incapacitated during the cave in.[10]

Nevertheless, Rin cared very deeply for Obito and was willing to always help him in almost anything, either by treating his wounds or giving him moral support. She was one of the first people to acknowledge him as a person and a ninja, and she was confident that he would one day become Hokage as she was always supporting his dream, and hoped to be beside him should it happen. She was also deeply saddened when Obito was incapacitated during the cave in and she mourned his presumed death. Rin was very also dedicated to her village and willingly sacrificed her life to protect it rather than risk planning a part in its potential destruction.[11]

Appearance

Rin was a young girl of average height. She had straight brown hair, which was cut in a chin-length bob that framed her face, and brown eyes. When she was a child in the Academy, her hair was long, hanging to nearly the top of her shoulders. She also had a rectangular purple marking on either sides of her cheeks. She wore a long-sleeved black top and a light purple apron-skirt, under which she wore black shorts. She also wore the standard Konoha forehead protector, along with a pair of sandals, red stockings that stopped at her thighs, and a small, red bracelet on her left wrist although it should be noted that the bracelet itself is visible in the anime, it is also visible in a few pages of the Naruto manga.[12] While on missions, Rin carried around a backpack instead of a pouch containing all of her equipment.

As an Academy student, she wore a simple outfit consisting of a light-coloured blouse with a bow tied in the middle and a simple, sleeveless haori.[13] As a genin, Rin wore a light purple outfit with shuriken patterns over it, with a belt around her waist and several pouches. Underneath this, she wore chain-mail armour, and calf-length sandals.[14]

In the anime, during her mission with Kakashi and Might Guy, she wore the standard Konoha flak jacket over her light purple, shuriken-patterned outfit.[7]

Abilities

As a chūnin, Rin was a fairly competent kunoichi. Her will was also incredibly strong as she was able to resist leaking any information when under Kakkō's genjutsu.[15] In the anime, Rin showed at least basic taijutsu skill during her genin test against Minato.[4] After becoming the jinchūriki of Isobu, her chakra levels increased tremendously.

Ninjutsu

Medical Ninjutsu

Rin using her Mystical Palm Technique to heal Kakashi.

As a medical-nin, Rin's primary duty on missions was to give support to her team-mates which she did with great aptitude and was even able to teach her team-mates basic first aid. Despite her age, she displayed great skill with medical ninjutsu, able being chosen to for a high-ranking mission in the Third Shinobi World War. During which, she successfully implant Obito's left Sharingan into Kakashi's damage eye socket in a short period of time and with only basic medical tools given the dire circumstances the team was in at the time.

Nature Transformation

Stats

Part II

Kaguya Ōtsutsuki Strikes

Rin reuniting with Obito in the afterlife.

Following Obito's death at the hands of Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, he was greeted in the afterlife by Rin, who stated that she had waited for him and Kakashi. Apologising for taking so long and getting lost along the way, Obito told her that a lot of things had happened since then, as she reached out her hand. Filled with guilt, Obito tried to tell her that he failed his promise of becoming Hokage. However, Rin assured Obito that it was okay because he tried his very hardest. Taking Obito's hand, Rin told the young Uchiha that up to this day, she was always watching over him, and asked him to come with her to the other side.

Before departing with Rin, however, Obito asked her to wait a little bit longer, wanting to give Kakashi something to help him during the battle against Kaguya. Rin teased Obito that despite the two boys' petty fights and arguments, they were still the closest of friends, much to her amusement at Obito's embarrassment. Stating she'll wait for him, Rin watched on as Obito teleported to the living world to support Kakashi, and later returned to the afterlife with Rin after Kaguya's defeat.

Legacy

Rin's death had a huge impact on her friends. Initially, it caused both Kakashi and Obito, who survived the cave-in and watched the events unfold from afar, to awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan in their respective eyes and ultimately caused Obito to exact revenge by killing all the enemy ninja in sight while sparing Kakashi. In the anime, Kakashi developed post-traumatic stress disorder from killing Rin, suffering many nightmares of her death (which would persist in adulthood), with one of them consisting of the impaled Rin whispering Kakashi's name before angrily yelling it, which awoke Kakashi and left him extremely terrified and guilt-ridden.[16] Since Rin's death, Kakashi would regularly visit her grave to clean her tombstone and leave her flowers, even sharing top-secret intel with her such as Naruto Uzumaki's birth, unaware that Obito was in hiding.[17] Rin's death, much like the deaths of every person dear to him, affected Kakashi but more so than usual since Rin had loved Kakashi and had also used him to kill her with his own hands. Even on the verge of death himself during Pain's assault on Konoha, Kakashi lamented on how he failed to protect Rin and said he was going to see her alongside the rest of their team.[18] When her death was brought up much later, Kakashi was visibly stunned, to the point of being unable to move.[19]

Rin continues to lead Kakashi and Obito on…

…even in the future following her death.

1 of 2

Rin's death had an even deeper impact on Obito. The site of Rin's corpse shattered Obito's idealism and drove him into embracing his clan's Curse of Hatred, growing to hate reality itself for allowing such a system to permit senseless deaths. Rin's death also served as the motivation for Obito to carry out Madara's Eye of the Moon Plan — to create a new world where heroes did not have to stand over graves and make pitiful excuses.[20] Obito even claimed that Rin was the only light in his life.

Overall, Rin died a loyal shinobi to her village, despite being kidnapped and made a jinchūriki in an attempt to wreak chaos on Konoha by Kiri. She chose to die, opting to commit suicide rather than even risk bringing destruction to her home, strongly exemplifying the Will of Fire inherited by the generation of Konoha shinobi.[21]

Trivia

Rin (リン) can have various meanings, such as "dignified", "severe", or "cold". Her last name Nohara (のはら) means "field".